Washington College Magazine
April Todd '95 encourages middle schoolers to become good readers.
Lauren Littlefield '91 engages WC students in clinical psychology research.
College Congratulates Teachers Of The Year
Inspired by the quality of the undergraduate education they received, many alumni pursue teaching careers. In 2007 two of them were recognized as Teachers of the Year in Maryland.
Lauren Littlefield '91, Washington College's associate professor of psychology and department chair, won the Maryland Psychological Association's top honor in recognition of her demonstrated excellence, dedication and innovation in teaching undergraduates.
Last spring, Dr. Littlefield's thesis students swept top honors for Washington College, winning first and second prizes at the Maryland Psychological Association's 2007 Ocean City Institute. They were recognized for their projects on emotional intelligence in children with reading disorders and on the psychological underpinnings of identity status in college students.
Littlefield holds master's and doctoral degrees from Drexel University, and conducted post-doctoral training at the University of Virginia and the Woodrow Wilson Rehabilitation Center. She joined the WC faculty in 1998.
April Todd '95, a language arts teacher at Somerset Intermediate School on Maryland's Eastern Shore, was named Maryland's top public school teacher. She credits the creative thinking skills she mastered at Washington College for her dynamic teaching philosophy. Her ideas on how to strengthen the teaching profession began to take shape under the tutelage of her professors—particularly Sean O Connor, Jeanette Sherbondy and Richard Gillin—who challenged her to think outside the box. Her teaching resources include an annual project—a reading dialogue journal—that encourages parents to get involved.
"The biggest challenge is with reluctant readers and writers," she said. "A lot of students come from a poor literary environment and it's extremely tiring, because you have to compete with video games and Hollywood, to motivate them to enjoy reading, but that's also the most rewarding part of my job. Now, students and parents are talking at the dinner table about reading."
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